Team Ninja: For All Of Nintendo’s Hardware, It’s Not About Power

Yosuke Hayashi, the head of Team Ninja, says Wii U’s power is practically on par with the power of both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. All of Nintendo’s hardware do not prioritize power, according to Hayashi, instead, they push developers to use them in unique ways. Hayashi feels that Nintendo’s hardware motivates him, as a developer, to make creative games.

“In terms of power, it’s right up there with PS3 and Xbox 360 plus the power to run the extra screen on the controller. There is plenty of power there to use. For all of Nintendo’s hardware, it’s not about power; it’s about how you creatively use the hardware. When we make games for Nintendo, they are going to come and challenge us to use that hardware to make a creative game. That’s the key point from Nintendo that we always feel.”

I used to have fun with Halo…but now it’s gone. Xbox community is shit. I can’t find enjoyment with the Xbox anymore. I go back to my gaming roots with Nintendo and Wii U. Only Nintendo gets the inner kid in you to awaken and enjoy quality games.

Halo used to be fun, but like Anonymous said, the xbox community sucks.
As for the console, there are some annoying things about it that makes me wanna throw mine off a cliff.
And for PS3, it never really caught my attention. Except for LittleBigPlanet. I’m not too fond of its mature games. (Well maybe except Heavy Rain, but I’d rather watch someone else play it.)

I think that he say that ps360 games running on tv and pad will be Xbox and ps3 quality, ill use rayman legend has example,rayman use both tv and pad images and it looks great but how much better will it looks if it just used the tv annd the pad for simple uses like extra buttons or items management

Wii U probably wont get every single 3rd party game, but you know what!!? Microsoft and Sony will be missing out on a few 3rd party stuff as well like Bayonetta 2, Rayman Origins, ZombiU, I’m sure there are more. So it all kind of balances out. Some systems will get some games and not others. Its just how it works…

Yes but zombi U, rayman legends and bayonetta 2 arent multiplats and dont get me wrong im sure Wii U will get a majority of the multiplatforms but i hope they wont be run down ports from the other consoles.

I’m sorry Aeolus, do you not remember the N64? The console that had Super Mario 64, GoldenEye 007, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, three of the most innovative games of all-time! The GameCube and Wii were also pretty great, despite what you think. How is that PS Vita selling, by the way?

I hate it when developers try and swerve around the issue and don’t b decisive about their comment’s. Saying things like ” oh yeh , it is practically similar more or less” – what the fuck does that mean ?

OK we get it, it’s has a bit better graphics than 360 and ps3 with 2 screens , possibly higher resoloution textures and higher framerates. All that witha nice big slice of innovation is great.

N64, 64-bit, a power beast that had great games such as OOT, Mario 64, Star Fox 64, Smash Bros, Golden Eye, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Mario Kart, Banjo-Kazooie and that is just the beinning with many more other great games.

And it was competing with a much lower machine, with only 32-bits. Yet, the one that had less sucky graphics (let’s be honest, they looked like crap compared to the N64 games) was the most selling, most successful console. Same with PS2, it was inferior to the Xbox and GameCube in terms of raw power (lol, it was getting toned down ports), yet it was the most amazing console ever to date, and still is.

Power means shit when you have a great console, that has a reasonable price, good games and good 3rd party-support.

I think the Wii U will be just fine, it’s going that route of affordable prices + great games library. The Wii only had great prices (and just a few good games), but it didn’t have any good 3rd party support. Now that Nintendo is making sure to get all the 3rd party support, the Wii U is a beast to be reckoned with. :)

Bitch please, the N64 and the GameCube were beast, in terms of power. Did you suffer amnesia or something? Anyways…

“When testing our first code on Wii U we were amazed how much we could throw at it without any slowdowns, at that time we even had zero optimizations. The performance problem of hardware nowadays is not clock speed but ram latency. Fortunately Nintendo took great efforts to ensure developers can really work around that typical bottleneck on Wii U. They put a lot of thought on how CPU, GPU, caches and memory controllers work together to amplify your code speed. For instance, with only some tiny changes we were able to optimize certain heavy load parts of the rendering pipeline to 6x of the original speed, and that was even without using any of the extra cores.”

“In comparison to the Wii, the Wii U has much more potential for optimizing. On Wii you knew what was possible and used that power. On Wii U you can take many different approaches to tackle a problem. Fortunately you already have lots of power at hands without digging deeper. So i’m pretty sure we will see many cool stuff on the Wii U when developers are understanding it better.”

“We didn’t have such problems. The CPU and GPU are a good match. As said before, today’s hardware has bottlenecks with memory throughput when you don’t care about your coding style and data layout. This is true for any hardware and can’t be only cured by throwing more megahertz and cores on it. Fortunately Nintendo made very wise choices for cache layout, ram latency and ram size to work against these pitfalls. Also Nintendo took care that other components like the Wii U GamePad screen streaming, or the built-in camera don’t put a burden on the CPU or GPU.”

“For Nano Assault Neo we already used a few tricks that are not possible on the current console cycle.

Due to the modern GPU architecture you have plenty of effects you can use to make Wii U games look better than anything you have seen on consoles before.”

“In fact we simply forgot to think about the memory size in the Wii U. There was always enough there. We never had to cut anything down due to memory restrictions.”

“I can’t detail that but for us as a developer we see everything works perfectly together. Many systems in the past forced the programmers to shift around their data and code quite a lot to fight against latency.”

“Nano Assault Neo only needs a fraction of the memory, even when all assets are unpacked and processed. So we use all remaining memory as a cache. So for instance loading times are nearly zero after a short while. It feels like playing from a SNES rom”

“We can’t be too specific on the Wii U hardware but you can’t compare anyway an OpenGl/DirectX driver version to the actual Wii U GPU. I can only assure that the Wii U GPU feature set allows to do many cool things that are not possible on any current console. The Wii U has enough of potential for the next years to create jaw-dropping visuals. Also remember the immense improvement we saw on the PS3 and XBOX360 over the years. I’m really excited to see what developers will show on the Wii U in the years to come.”

“From my perspective I do not understand the public’s concerns that the Wii U is weaker than PS3 and 360, that I cannot see. From my perspective the Wii U is minimum as powerful as Xbox 360.”

“It actually runs beautifully,”(referring to CryEngine3 on Wii U)

“The specs are very good It’s a challenge for designers, but once thought through it can add value, and that’s what ultimately important. Our guys in Nottingham they are very happy with their tests on the dev kits and they’re excited about it.”

“It’s a next gen piece of hardware.”

“but what I can tell you is that it’s a next generation platform, and you should keep your eyes open.”

“Wii U Is Pretty Powerful… Which Means You Can Do A Lot More than current consoles”

“We can always use more memory and rendering capability. I think that’s one of the most exciting things about the Wii U. Not only do you have the technology of what you can do gameplay wise but it will be one of the best looking versions of the game.”

“Things like the Wii U are becoming very sexy with what you can do with the controller, especially with what you’re able to do with the motion tracker or whatever the sub gameplay you’d get to see on there. I think the machine itself will have one of the best looking versions of the game because they’ve got more RAM [and] they’re late in the cycle so they’ve got this really great processor.”

“Wii U is a next generation system.”

“The Wii U is a powerful, powerful machine and it can do a lot of cool new things. And so the game itself, moving it over to work on the Wii U was not much of a chore.”

“We’ve got the [Aliens: Colonial Marines] engine running on the Wii U, and as far as the console goes, you’re going to see textures at a resolution that you haven’t seen on [the current] generation.”

“(Wii U is) definitely more powerful than Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It’s kind of frustrating to see the rumours and speculation of people going back and forth saying it’s weaker or more powerful. It’s definitely more powerful.”

“What surprises me with Wii U is that we don’t have many technical problems. It’s really running very well, in fact. We’re not obliged to constantly optimize things. Even on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions [of Origins], we had some fill-rate issues and things like that. So it’s partly us – we improved the engine – but I think the console is quite powerful. Surprisingly powerful. And there’ a lot of memory. You can really have huge textures, and it’s crazy because sometimes the graphic artist – we built our textures in very high-dentition. They could be used in a movie. Then we compress them, but sometimes they forget to do the compression and it still works! [Laughs] So yeah, it’s quite powerful. It’s hard sometimes when you’re one of the first developers because it’s up to you to come up with solutions to certain problems. But the core elements of the console are surprisingly powerful.”

“Basically that does require… well, not huge amounts more graphics processing power, but still considerably. If we would publish that on the other consoles, then I believe that there would be some small downscaling of what it is right now.” (Wii U can run something that PS3/360 cannot run without downscaling.)

This guy hit the nail on the head. Instead of making a expensive, overpowered console and then chucking a bunch of games that have levels of violence only a psychopath would enjoy, like Microsoft and Sony. Nintendo makes an innovative console and puts interesting. creative games on it.

GM: Can you download a game right away when you see it on your Miiverse? Will you still have physical games too then?
Cindy: Yes. What we said is that every game for the Wii U, and this is true for the Nintendo 3DS too, will be available in both packaged as well as digital. It’s really about choice. What I remember as a parent, I prefer the download because I won’t lose the disk. But some people thrive on [having the physical game], to each his own.
GM: Is there a way you can play your games on another Nintendo, for example if I go to my parents’ house and want to play on their console?
Cindy: You’ll have an account system so you’ll be able to access your account any Wii U.

I’m not saying I like Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge. Actually it looks awful. You’re right Sony has Ratchet & Clank and Sly Cooper which are great series, not focused on a bunch of assholes shooting each other. But Microsoft…Nope.

No it sucked. One reason. The mother fucking vechiles. I can look past the annoying aiming, and the disappearence of decent platformig was vechiles that might as well be made out of paper, time limits and a FUCK LOAD of traffic, makes me say, “no, fuck this game”

The graphics are comparable. But higher framerates , texures , resoloution is possible with effects from the modern GPU that aren’t possible on current GEN. = practically on par.

But we all know once developers (EAD and RETRO) unlock the full power of wiiu like they did on wii with Galaxy 1 and 2 and Prime 3 , skyward etc. then the games are gunna be way ahead of Current/last GEN.

For all we know – the 720 could be ”practically on par” with current gen.

Well if theyre referring to the games out now, then yeah they are practically on par, but thats because its new tech and no-ones made a next gen game yet. People could argue Pikmin 3 should be next gen, but that games been in development for a while, back when the WiiU had the original tech, which was worse than the one it has now, the one the Zelda tech demo was made on, its been updated since then along with the hardware.

Yeah, Retro and EAD make some crazy pretty games, but thats the same with any first party developer. PS3 first party games like Ratchet ad Clank, Uncharted, God of War, Killzone ect look incredible, waaay above what most current gen tech does, because it can be optimised to its best, its made using the system. Its the same with Halo 4, i was surprised how good it looks. It still lacks, like how guns fly in the air when enemies die, and animations look a little derp, like with hit detection ect, but it still looks damn nice.
Cant wait to see a Zelda game .___.

What i think is they meant that grphicaly there is not much to inovate the only thing left is gameplay and technical features for example more ai caracters and bigger less loading maps just to name a few

Agreed, especialy on the way Sony’s first party games look! Resistance 3 is jaw dropping. Halo 4 is stunning for a 360 game no suprise its a high budget first party game.

Halo 4 is amazing, best paced FPS campaing (Prime trilogy not included) ever. From Mantis to jetpack it’s truly great. DAT JUNGLE LEVEL!!!! have you seen the flora and fauna and bloom lighting in that jungle ? upscaled to 1080p with my new 5.1 surround sound , my jawe truly dropped at the full potential of the 360 being realized.

If the 360 can do that with its old architecture , just think what the Wiiu can do !

I had to say, as someone who wasnt big on Halo, im really enjoying 4. Its not a big step up from the rest in terms of gameplay, its just alot of small touches that make it alot better, but I thought the campaign was a little too short though :/
But yeah, its got great pacing, every level has something new, and they nailed it with the audio, the guns sound fantastic, along with the soundtrack. I wore surround sound headphones playing it, damn its nice.

I will add you on xbox live when I get the chance. I live 3 floors above my router ATM, so the wireless of my ps3 and 360 does not reach , and TBH I don’t care about online gaming most of the time. BUT I am in the middle of extending the range somehow , probably ring up a tecnician and have a wire run all the way up here (relatively new house).

My laptop has no problem having full internet all the way up here , but all my consoles and handhelds have the same shit wireless range. It should be fixed in the next week or so , so I will add you and kick your ass on halo :)

The MP is alot better than Reach IMO. Covenant weapons are actually usable (dat beam rifle) and the new needler is amazing. Its not just a bunch of guys with either DMRs or ARs anymore, people are using storm rifles, and the new carbine. IMO it resembles the most like H3 multiplayer.

Halo 4’s matchmaking is shit. IMO. Campaign was great but matchmaking sucks. Mantis on Valhalla fuck that shit. Bad Rifle…aka BR take that shit out. I’m already bored of the maps I’m ready for next months map pack. Complex is the worst map made in any video game in the history of video games I do not play it ever. Quit everytime idiots pick it.

“When testing our first code on Wii U we were amazed how much we could throw at it without any slowdowns, at that time we even had zero optimizations. The performance problem of hardware nowadays is not clock speed but ram latency. Fortunately Nintendo took great efforts to ensure developers can really work around that typical bottleneck on Wii U. They put a lot of thought on how CPU, GPU, caches and memory controllers work together to amplify your code speed. For instance, with only some tiny changes we were able to optimize certain heavy load parts of the rendering pipeline to 6x of the original speed, and that was even without using any of the extra cores.”

“In comparison to the Wii, the Wii U has much more potential for optimizing. On Wii you knew what was possible and used that power. On Wii U you can take many different approaches to tackle a problem. Fortunately you already have lots of power at hands without digging deeper. So i’m pretty sure we will see many cool stuff on the Wii U when developers are understanding it better.”

“We didn’t have such problems. The CPU and GPU are a good match. As said before, today’s hardware has bottlenecks with memory throughput when you don’t care about your coding style and data layout. This is true for any hardware and can’t be only cured by throwing more megahertz and cores on it. Fortunately Nintendo made very wise choices for cache layout, ram latency and ram size to work against these pitfalls. Also Nintendo took care that other components like the Wii U GamePad screen streaming, or the built-in camera don’t put a burden on the CPU or GPU.”

“For Nano Assault Neo we already used a few tricks that are not possible on the current console cycle.

Due to the modern GPU architecture you have plenty of effects you can use to make Wii U games look better than anything you have seen on consoles before.”

“In fact we simply forgot to think about the memory size in the Wii U. There was always enough there. We never had to cut anything down due to memory restrictions.”

“I can’t detail that but for us as a developer we see everything works perfectly together. Many systems in the past forced the programmers to shift around their data and code quite a lot to fight against latency.”

“Nano Assault Neo only needs a fraction of the memory, even when all assets are unpacked and processed. So we use all remaining memory as a cache. So for instance loading times are nearly zero after a short while. It feels like playing from a SNES rom”

“We can’t be too specific on the Wii U hardware but you can’t compare anyway an OpenGl/DirectX driver version to the actual Wii U GPU. I can only assure that the Wii U GPU feature set allows to do many cool things that are not possible on any current console. The Wii U has enough of potential for the next years to create jaw-dropping visuals. Also remember the immense improvement we saw on the PS3 and XBOX360 over the years. I’m really excited to see what developers will show on the Wii U in the years to come.”

“From my perspective I do not understand the public’s concerns that the Wii U is weaker than PS3 and 360, that I cannot see. From my perspective the Wii U is minimum as powerful as Xbox 360.”

“It actually runs beautifully,”(referring to CryEngine3 on Wii U)

“The specs are very good It’s a challenge for designers, but once thought through it can add value, and that’s what ultimately important. Our guys in Nottingham they are very happy with their tests on the dev kits and they’re excited about it.”

“It’s a next gen piece of hardware.”

“but what I can tell you is that it’s a next generation platform, and you should keep your eyes open.”

“Wii U Is Pretty Powerful… Which Means You Can Do A Lot More than current consoles”

“We can always use more memory and rendering capability. I think that’s one of the most exciting things about the Wii U. Not only do you have the technology of what you can do gameplay wise but it will be one of the best looking versions of the game.”

“Things like the Wii U are becoming very sexy with what you can do with the controller, especially with what you’re able to do with the motion tracker or whatever the sub gameplay you’d get to see on there. I think the machine itself will have one of the best looking versions of the game because they’ve got more RAM [and] they’re late in the cycle so they’ve got this really great processor.”

“Wii U is a next generation system.”

“The Wii U is a powerful, powerful machine and it can do a lot of cool new things. And so the game itself, moving it over to work on the Wii U was not much of a chore.”

“We’ve got the [Aliens: Colonial Marines] engine running on the Wii U, and as far as the console goes, you’re going to see textures at a resolution that you haven’t seen on [the current] generation.”

“(Wii U is) definitely more powerful than Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It’s kind of frustrating to see the rumours and speculation of people going back and forth saying it’s weaker or more powerful. It’s definitely more powerful.”

“What surprises me with Wii U is that we don’t have many technical problems. It’s really running very well, in fact. We’re not obliged to constantly optimize things. Even on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions [of Origins], we had some fill-rate issues and things like that. So it’s partly us – we improved the engine – but I think the console is quite powerful. Surprisingly powerful. And there’ a lot of memory. You can really have huge textures, and it’s crazy because sometimes the graphic artist – we built our textures in very high-dentition. They could be used in a movie. Then we compress them, but sometimes they forget to do the compression and it still works! [Laughs] So yeah, it’s quite powerful. It’s hard sometimes when you’re one of the first developers because it’s up to you to come up with solutions to certain problems. But the core elements of the console are surprisingly powerful.”

“Basically that does require… well, not huge amounts more graphics processing power, but still considerably. If we would publish that on the other consoles, then I believe that there would be some small downscaling of what it is right now.” (Wii U can run something that PS3/360 cannot run without downscaling.)

When the list of developers quotes of Wii U being next-gen is TL:DR, that means Wii U is next gen.

ithe industry just doesn’t like nintendo if it was about power resident evil would’ve been on 64 and grand theft auto would’ve been on the g cube nintendo is on their own even if the u can play every third party game it will probably only receive 50% but nintendo is easily better imo

That’s the only thing Sony and Microsoft can do with their consoles; stick powerful specs into them. Only this time there will hardly be a noticable difference. Welcome to the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube generation where graphics were completely irrelevant.

This generation will be interesting. The Orbis and Durango can barely be more powerful than the U because of the fact that they’ve gotta make a profit and that they can’t afford another system that costs more than 399$. So yeah, it’ll be all about how the game is crafted for each system rather than about the raw tech power and graphics.

Alba, you explanation and the article do not quite mesh. Japanese is a very complex language it has emotions and cultural overtures when one speaks. You will have nintendo gamers posting essays from real developers now, like the gamer above us. Team ninja made other M! hehehehe.

When these developers say stuff like “practically on par” about the Wii U, they might just mean that it and the hd twins are comparable enough to run the same games regardless of graphical fidelity. In a way of speaking, in terms of game play possibilities, (Not counting Wii U’s controllers) not level of graphics. Say, yes Wii games could probably run on Ps2, but the graphics would be much, much worse.

On the flip side you couldn’t get a ps3 game running on ps2 without making a whole new game.

As long as Wii U doesn’t miss out on good third party titles I will be happy. The system is powerful enough in my opinion and I think it’s a pretty decent value. Can’t wait to see what Nintendo does with its core franchises on Wii U.

AND SO IT BEGINS,,,, THE INDIRECT ANTI NINTENDO STATEMENTS FUNNY ALL THESE STATEMENTS ARE COMING FROM THE TEAM THIS IS BLATANT ANTI NINTENDOISM LOL AT THE CLOWN SHOES ITS AS POWERFUL AS PS3 IS A BLATANT LIE 3RD PARTYS HAVE THERE NEW FAD/KIDDY/ONLY NINTENDO GAMES SELL ON THERE CONSOLES AND ITS CALLED WIIU ISNT NEXT GEN

I PREDICTED THEY WOULD DO THIS AS RELEASE DATE COMES COULDN’T MAKE UP A INDUSTRY “””””””””””BUTT HURT””””””” BY NINTENDOS POWER SAD LITTLE IDIOT

2GB GUYS MATCHES 512MB 32MB EDRAM MATCHES 10MB AND ZERO MB A HIGH SPEED LOADING CUSTOM DISC SYSTEM MATCHES PS3 SLOW DRIVE YOU ARE EXPOSED 3RD PARTY AS ANTI NINTENDO WHAT A CLOWN GO GET HIS LONG SILLY SHOES I SEE A LIAR FROM A MILE AWAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE RAM FOR GAMES IS AT LEAST 3 X PS3 EFFECTIVE SO HOWS THAT PS3

THE DISC SYSTEM LOADS/STREAMS 2.5 X PLUS THE SPEED OF PS3S DRIVE HOW IS THAT = TO PS3

2GB TOTAL RAM = 4 X PS3 HOW IS 4X1= TO 1 THIS GUY NEEDS TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL LOL AT ANY ATTEMPT TO DISCREDIT THE WIIU SAD LITTLE FOOL

They should stop trolling when the console is near to be launched. The Wii U has plenty of power to excite us for at least 5-6 years. We have never seen till now a Nintendo game in HD and they’re afraid to see how much difference there will be with the upcoming games from Nintendo compared to Ninja Gaiden Razor’s aliasing. Just to say, look at Mario Bros U where many people was thinking it ran at 1080p and they found out that it was only running at 720p.